Professional Notes

Dr. David Kelley, Dr. Paul Lorah, Dr. Robert Werner and Catherine Hansen, College of Arts and Sciences (Geography Department), attended the 2009 West Lakes Association of American Geographers annual conference with a group of junior and senior geography students Oct. 29-31 at Macalester College. Junior Renee Huset participated in a scholarship competition for undergraduates and presented a talk on her original research, “Aboveground Carbon Potential in Deforested Minnesota Lands.” Lorah presented his research, “Renewable Energy and Landscape-Scale Change: How Sustainable Is our Pursuit for Sustainable Energy?” Kelley presented his research, “Minnesota’s CRP Lands: Criteria Development and Effects of Current Corn Prices.” Kelley, Lorah and Werner served as judges for the undergraduate and graduate student competitions.

Quentin Moore ’09, Enrollment Services, was one of 10 local writers selected to participate in the 2009-10 Givens Black Writers Collaborative Retreat Program Nov. 12-15. Moore and the other nine writers will join national mentoring writer Ishamel Reed, a renowned American poet, essayist and novelist, and state mentoring writer Laurie Carlos, an Obie award-winning actress and theater artist. The 10 writers, who range in experience from emerging to mid-career, were selected through a competitive submission and panel-review process. According to the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, sponsor of the retreat, “These writers demonstrated a commitment to the writing life and represented provocative and energetic voices of the literary arts scene in Minnesota.”

Dr. Mark Neuzil, College of Arts and Sciences (Communication and Journalism Department), is the author of “Yielding Questions,” a summary of a debate on biofuels, greenhouse gas emissions and land use change as it relates to agriculture and yields. The article was published in Momentum, the quarterly publication of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, where Neuzil is an associate fellow.

James Rogers, Center for Irish Studies, is the author of an article, “Old Men in Graveyards: Joseph Mitchell’s Dialogue With Seumas O’Kelly,” in the spring issue of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. The article examines intertextual relationships between a 1956 work of literary nonfiction by New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell and a 1918 work of fiction by the Irish writer O’Kelly.

Dr. Teresa J. Rothausen-Vange, Opus College of Business (Management Department), is the lead author of the article, “Are All the Parts There Everywhere? Facet Job Satisfaction in the United States and the Philippines,” published in Asia Pacific Journal of Management (Vol. 26). Her co-authors are Jorge A. Gonzalez and Andrea E.C. Griffin. The paper reports empirical results of survey research comparing what is important to job satisfaction and retention in the two countries.

Dr. Martin Warren, College of Arts and Sciences (English Department), is the author of an article, “The Quakers as Parrhesiasts: Frank Speech and Plain Speaking as the Fruits of Silence,” published in the journal Quaker History (Vol. 98, No. 2). The article examines parrhesia (the frankness and boldness of speech) employed by George Fox and his early Quaker followers. Parrhesia is a verbal activity that leads a speaker to express his or her personal relationship to truth, and in doing so risks the speaker’s life because the speaker recognizes truth telling as a duty to improve or help other people. Warren also was a guest speaker on a two-hour Spirit Quest Radio program on medieval mystics. This was Warren’s second time this year working with Spirit Quest radio.

Dr. Scott Wright, College of Arts and Sciences (History Department), has six essays in the Historical Encyclopedia of American Business (Salem Press, 2009). The subjects include: “Beef industry,” “‘Coolie’ labor,” “Eugene V. Debs,” “Fur trading and trapping,” “Granger Movement” and “Meatpacking industry.”